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I can forgive Roethlisberger for the stalled final drive against the Raiders, considering all the defense had to do was stop the Raiders from scoring on one lonely drive in the second half, and they didn't.

Originally Posted by Crash

You're logic's been over.

You are charting plays. You aren't looking at the type. Any idiot can do that.

7.3 YPA. 2nd lowest of his career.

8-8.

Hey genius, what was Roethlisberger's TD percentage this season compared to the last few? Yeah, OK. You keep bitching and moaning about the coaches (and allegedly the ownership) emphasizing time of possession over scoring, and then you wanna talk about YPA? Hypocrite.

These are the reasons why the Steelers finished 8-8:

1. Ben Roethlisberger missed three-and-a-half games and then tried to play through an injury that medical professionals say takes at least six weeks just to heal from, not including the time necessary for an athlete to get back into proper playing condition.

2. Injuries along the offensive line not only disrupted the continuity between linemen, but also tested the depth of the unit. There was not a single game this season during which all five projected starters on the offensive line played together.

3. The RBs proved utterly incapable of carrying the load in Roethlisberger's absence. Rashard Mendenhall hasn't the heart to be a dependable starter; Jonathan Dwyer hasn't the stamina, and Isaac Redman hasn't the physical talent. They single-handedly fumbled the game away in Cleveland too.

4. Opposing defenses began taking away all the short passing routes, and the Steelers couldn't go vertical because Charlie Batch didn't have the arm strength, and neither did Roethlisberger after his injury. Furthermore, the deteriorating offensive line was not going to hold up long enough to run a vertical passing game.

5. Todd Haley was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. Neither of his QBs could go vertical, so defenses continued to crowd the line, taking away the short passing game, and making the already-unimpressive running game even worse. Haley chose to err on the side of protecting the franchise QB, and called more running plays.

Roethlisberger's injury started a domino effect that the Steelers were not able to recover from. It had nothing to do with the front office, and you're a goddamn moron if you think it does.

3. The RBs proved utterly incapable of carrying the load in Roethlisberger's absence.

And why was that? Me? I think a BIG part of it was 1. Haley's predictable play-calling with the RBs. 2. His constant rotation of running backs. 3. Where he has the RBs lining up in the backfield.

4. Opposing defenses began taking away all the short passing routes, and the Steelers couldn't go vertical because Charlie Batch didn't have the arm strength, and neither did Roethlisberger after his injury.

Then why was Batch throwing bombs to Mike Wallace with three minutes left in the Browns game? Why was Batch throwing bombs to the end zone to Wallace in Baltimore? Then to Heath Miller in the endzone in the same game?

You aren't making sense. Either Batch, based on what he was doing HAD the arm strength, or Haley's an idiot for having him to do it. You decide.

Ben had the arm strength too. 60 yards to Wallace in Dallas. Another bomb to Brown in the last game.

BEFORE Ben was injured he ranked 28th in the NFL in length per pass.

No, teams took away the short stuff, because they KNEW we weren't going vertical. And that was an issue BEFORE Ben was injured.

Furthermore, the deteriorating offensive line was not going to hold up long enough to run a vertical passing game.

So you roll the pocket, to buy him time. Not every goddamn pass has to be a straight drop.

Arians dealt with OL injuries too. He also dealt with not having Max Starks at all for 4 weeks because he was out of football.

Arians was fired. And his running game, minus 2008 was NEVER this bad despite injuries to RBs as well.